Race Report: Disney's Go Red for Women 5K (W5D3)

Today was my 2nd 5k and W5D3. I treated this as another workout day and began the race walking very briskly for 5 minutes. The truth is, I was itching to run but wanted to pace myself so I could run to the finish line.

The 20 minute run went great. I started slowly and sped up towards the end, but not too much because I knew I still would have over a mile to go after I finished the 20 minutes. I was going to keep running until the 2 mile marker, but I did not know quite where it was (it was about .1 miles from where I started walking). I am kinda kicking myself for this because if I had just slowed down to a slower jog instead of walking, I am sure I could have run the entire thing. After catching my breath for a song or two, I ran for another song then walked a bit more, then ran about half a mile to the finish line. Once I could see the clock, I gave it my all and started sprinting. As I was nearing the finish line, the clock was quickly turning to 43 and I pushed even harder to try to beat it (I missed it by 2 seconds) then I stopped and I got this rush of feeling over me as I struggled to catch my breath. I felt like I was going to cry--you know that feeling you get when you are crying so much you can barely breath? It was that kind of feeling minus the tears.

I estimate I ran at least 1.5 miles straight (during the 20 minute run) and a total of at least 2 miles, maybe more. Not too bad considering 6 weeks I could barely run more than a minute. I can't wait until I get my forerunner watch so I can know exactly how far I run. I improved my time greatly and finished under 42 minutes. I will definitely aim to run the entire time at the next 5k in 3 weeks and finish under 40 minutes.

Running at Disney was very cool because I knew the area and could easily see my progress. They even had music blasting so I could have done without my ipod, and we got a cool goodie bag and finisher's medal. I definitely want to do the Race for the Taste 10k in October.

Stats:
Distance - 5K
Chip Time- 41:46 (Clock - 43:02)
Pace: 13.47 minutes/mile
Overall Place - 1119 / 1796
Gender Place - 998 / 1632
Division Place - 994 / 1627